Here are some photos of the fabrication of my recumbent cargo bicycle. I selected the front end of a women’s frame and the rear triangle of a suspension frame and began by first connecting them together with a long bottom tube. But first, here is the CAD model and the drawing I made to work from:

Then I began the cargo box construction with the side rails of the lower portion. I mitered some tubing and welded it at 45 degrees, then attached that section to the frame, followed by the rear tube at 45 degrees. Then I made the other half.

Then I put in the vertical tube that connects the top and down tubes of the front half.

ME 441 – Single Track Vehicle Design. AKA bike building class. AKA the best class at Cal Poly. Today we had the first lab section where we test rode a bunch of bikes that the professor and one of his friends brought to school. A couple students also brought in some different bikes for test riding. I brought in the purple tall bike. The point of the exercise was to see how different riding positions and frame geometries affect the handling and ergonomics of the bike. We filled out score sheets for 3 bikes and wrote down comments about the designs so that we can think of what we want and do not want in our designs. It was the most fun lab I think any of us had ever had.

I rode a 4 person tandem, a recumbent tandem, a pixie for adults, spider bikes that you could drift, other recumbents, normal bikes, and even a monster truck complete with a wheelie bar, stereo, water guns, and a flamethrower. Yes, a flamethrower HEAAAA!